Fear Itself Prologue: Book of the Skull

[paultmd]

So the first chapter of Fear Itself is out, and it starts with Sin, the new Red Skull, and Baron Zemo(Allegiance Currently Unknown) tracking down one of the original Red Skull's hidden bases.



Zemo is only helping Sin to honor a debt. They get through the base's defense and find what Sin was after.



Flash back to 1942, with the Skull and his Thule Society having just performed a ritual to summon an unspoken(though we can assume from what we've been told about Fear Itself, Norse) power. A bolt of lightning streaks across the sky and the Skull is upset it hasn't landed at their feet. Whatever they summoned will have to be found.

The next day Captain America, Bucky, and Namor show up and Namor is none too happy to find what's been done to his people. They try to track down the Skull, who has found where the lightning struck.




A large crater made by an object sent to Earth through lightning that cannot be budged? Sound familiar?




The three members of the Invaders give chase to Skull but are stopped by an Ice Troll(I believe - not up on my Thor characters, but I think that's what it is) that appears to have come to Earth with the item the Skull summoned.

I won't spoil what actually came to Earth or what happens in the present after Sin finishes relaying this tale(though what came to Earth definitely seems to be a bigger story point, even though solicitations for the miniseries seems to make it obvious).





Forgive me if I did this wrong, as it's my first post.

Comments

[bradhanon]

...okay, this looks pretty cool. Very strong echoes of Hellboy of course, I know I'm not the only one seeing that. But cool.

[turtlefu]

This is not just strong echo of Hellboy.
This is Fraction watching the Hellboy and reading some trades, then yanking pretty much the entire thing and putting it in the Marvel Universe.

[valtyr]

I haven't read much Hellboy, but given that the Nazis dabbling in the occult is actual history, what else does this take from Hellboy?

[proteus_lives]

Then the creator of Hellboy stole it from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

[darkblade]

That almost goes without saying.

[mrstatham]

Is there really such a thing as stealing a common concept like Nazis and the occult? Mignola probably did take ideas from Raiders, sure, but it isn't like Spielberg and Lucas magically developed the concept of 'Occult Nazis' suddenly. They took inspiration from the older pulps and comics and serials, just like Mignola did.

Mignola's Nazis are also probably a bit more competent than the melty-faced tools from Raiders.

[espanolbot]

Not particularly good Nazis though, most of them don't like Hitler and only serve him as a means for getting resources for their true master: Rasputin.

[mrstatham]

True enough, the majority of the ones we see are pretty much devoted to Rasputin and went into seclusion following his disappearance in '45. I think Mignola's best depiction (so to speak) of a Nazi force is the beginning of The Conqueror Worm - They actually get the rocket they're launching into space at the cost of their own lives, whilst holding off an Allied intervention.

As for them not liking Hitler, that's pretty much (as much as I'm loathe to quote TV Tropes - spending way too much time on there) Truth in Television.

[shadowpsykie]

as much as I'm loathe to quote TV Tropes - spending way too much time on there

thats the thing with TV Tropes, you curiously want to look ONE thing up... then you spend the WHOLE DAY on that page....im trying not to go on there as we speak... there is an actual android app for that..... it makes it harder :((((

[mrstatham]

Much like everyone else, I'm sadly forced to point out that the concept of Nazis fucking with stuff that no man should isn't just relegated to Hellboy. Also, to say Hellboy is just like this is to give Hellboy a very, very short sell.

That said, I can see where the direct parallels come into play, especially in these pages and the first HB movie. A Nazi project left alone for decades, about to be reactivated, with strong elements of the occult, and a mention of the Thule Society? It does seem like direct lifting, almost.

[espanolbot]

The Thule Society was a real thing though?

[mrstatham]

Well, of course, but given Turtlefu's suggesting that this is a bit of a lift of HB, I was just drawing up the most obvious parallels.

[thanekos]

Appropriate vengeance against Bucky, vengeance against Hawkeye, and now helping the Skull's daughter- Zemo must get a lot of use out of a day planner.

[rezonantshine]

Wolverine taught him after they ran into each other that one time. No, not that time; the other one.

[k_red]

I got all excited to see the ol'Buckster but he's not here! Is it tagging just because he, Cap and Namor are mentioned?

[paultmd]

Sorry. I wrote the tags then deleted a page with the Invaders fighting the Ice Troll to allow somebody else to post a page if they saw fit. I'll try to fix the tags.

[k_red]

oh ok. i had all sorts of wild theories that he was masquerading as one of the nazis and i thought i just missed him...which now that i think about it is less wild than an ice troll.

[dr_archeville]

Wikipedia says one of he tie-ins for "Fear Itself" is Throne of Blood: Birth of a Vampire.

In the MU, Atlantean sorcerers -- not the blue-skinned Homo mermanus, but the humanoids who lived on the island before it sank, who were besieged by King Kull -- created the first vampires, 15,000 years ago, using rituals from the Darkhold.

(Atlantis sank 10,000 years ago, then was claimed 2,000 years later by the blue-skinned Homo mermanus. To my knowledge Marvel's never said where they came from -- they just showed up and claimed the ruined city of Atlantis for their own, 8,000 years ago.)

Could it be some sort of Vampire-God Red Skull and the Thule-ians (Thuleans? Thulians?) tried to summon? (Isn't he draugr a type of Norse vampire?)

[paultmd]

It was probably the bigger-than-Odin true-allfather they've been hinting at in interviews lately that he was trying to summon. As far as him being some kind of vampire or having some kind of vampiric ties, it's certainly possible.

We know Marvel's Dracula, recently resurrected in X-Men vs. Vampires has a part to play in this, and there's a connection between Atlanteans and Vampires and now Atlanteans and Norse Gods, it's seeming like it can all fit together.

[espanolbot]

Hm... Blood for the Blood God?

[crinos]

love Sin's troll face on the last page.